Billionaire Investor Stanley Druckenmiller Just Sold Intel and Micron, and Piled Into 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Are Betting Big on Robotics

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has reportedly never seen red.

The George Soros protégé ran his own fund, Duquesne Capital, for three decades, from 1981 to 2010, with no down years, and reportedly generating average annual returns of 30%, which is unheard of.

Today, Druckenmiller is still buying and selling stocks, although he runs a family office now called Duquesne Family Office. Needless to say, the market is still very interested in what Druckenmiller is investing in.

In the second quarter, Duquesne sold Intel and Micron, and piled into two other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks that are betting big on robotics.

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Selling Intel and Micron

Both Intel and Micron have already been big winners this year, particularly in the second quarter.

MU data by YCharts

Micron, a maker of NAND flash memory and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), has benefited greatly from AI. Both NAND and DRAM play key roles in feeding data to graphics processing units (GPUs) in data centers that fuel AI models, so as GPU clusters and data centers have scaled, so, too, has demand for memory.

In fact, most experts expect memory to be constrained for this year, 2027, and maybe even 2028. However, memory has historically been viewed as a cyclical industry because, by the time supply catches up with demand, demand tends to fade.

While it remains to be seen whether the AI supercycle will change that, Druckenmiller and his team may have simply decided that Micron's gains have pulled forward expected demand.

Intel has engineered an incredible turnaround since last year, driven largely by strong demand for central processing units (CPUs). While CPUs were once seen as legacy chips powering consumer electronics like cellphones and laptops, they are now considered the most efficient way to power agentic AI.

In recent years, Intel has also relaunched its Foundry not only to make chips internally, but also to manufacture chips for external clients. While Foundry has not confirmed any anchor clients, many experts think it's only a matter of time.

It's hard to say why Druckenmiller may have sold, but 200%+ gains in such a short window is spectacular, so it could simply be taking profits, especially with so much uncertainty in the market.

Two AI bets on robotics

Duquesne added to existing positions and initiated many new positions in the second quarter, but two that stand out were AI companies betting big on robotics.

The fund purchased call options on the electric vehicle company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), with a notional value of nearly $53 million at the end of the second quarter. Notional value is not how much is paid for the position, but the total value, determined by the number of options multiplied by the stock price. Each option is worth 100 shares.

Duquesne also increased its Amazon position tenfold in the quarter. Amazon now accounts for 2.5% of Duquesne's portfolio.

While Tesla still generates the bulk of its revenue from EVs, investors are betting on its burgeoning robotaxi fleet and the future Optimus humanoid robotics division. Robotaxis have launched but are still in the early stages of scaling.

Tesla is gearing up to begin manufacturing humanoid robotics, which CEO Elon Musk has said will likely be Tesla's biggest product ever. However, Musk also warned of a slow rollout, primarily because the company has had to build a supply chain from scratch.

Tesla has also committed to over $25 billion in capital expenditures this year to help progress autonomous robotaxis and humanoid robotics. It's still too early to predict how the robots will turn out, but the market clearly views Tesla as a potential leader, given its nose-bleed valuation.

Amazon obviously isn't just a bet on robotics. The company is one of the biggest cloud players building data centers for frontier AI companies like Anthropic. Amazon is planning to spend $220 billion on capex this year and has already started to see that pay off.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue grew 37% year over year in the second quarter, marking the unit's fastest quarter of growth since 2021.

But Amazon is also investing heavily in robotics. The company has already deployed over 1 million robots across its operations, including the automation of its warehouses.

The company is also reportedly testing humanoid robots to deliver items in its massive e-commerce business. Amazon would likely be one of the largest beneficiaries of robots among the "Magnificent Seven."

Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Intel, Micron Technology, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.